Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir

Monday, December 31, 2012

Matt Bracken writes a short story about the move to confiscate our freedom tools:

This is the first time in many years that I have put pen to
paper for a lengthy letter, so please forgive my misspellings, poor
handwriting or any other errors. I will probably do this in one go and
be finished with it. I won’t need much of this new notebook. It’s a nice
room, desk and chair, but really, no computer? I just wish they would
stop the hammering outside. I need to focus in order to write well.

No one person could possibly expect to know the full truth
about such a complex history, so near to its time. But I know what I
know, saw what I saw, and heard what I heard. Now it’s time to set the
record straight, at least about what transpired between some of the key
players in the lead up to the recent events.

What I have heard called “the plan” began as idle office
chat, nothing more. (Of course, not much chat is ever truly idle at the
very highest levels of power, between senior presidential advisors.) The
first time I heard it mentioned was over lunch with Dennis in the White
House Mess, down in the basement next to the situation room. We were at
a quiet corner table of the wood-paneled dining room, tossing ideas for
the next talking points back and forth. Routine.

One of right-wing hate radio’s loudest and most poisonous
voices was conducting an embarrassing public feud with our press
secretary. The President had trapped himself in a seeming contradiction.
The video and audio were both damning, and one must admit, very
funny—if one’s goal was to make the President look and sound like a liar
and a fool. The Youtube videos were getting millions of hits; the TV
comics were not letting it go. We had been knocked completely off
message, the optics were horrible, and our favorability ratings were
collapsing at a crucial moment. (It seems like an ice-age ago when such
trivialities actually mattered to me.)

I said something offhandedly to Dennis. “I just wish we could get rid of those bastards, once and for all.”

He stared at me for a long time, chewing on his second BLT
sandwich until the Navy steward retreated from range, and then he said,
“Actually, Jacinda, there is sort of a plan for that.”

The words were tucked deep into the sprawling text of President Obama’s signature health-care overhaul.
Under the headline “Protection of Second Amendment Gun Rights” was a
brief provision restricting the ability of doctors to gather data about
their patients’ gun use — a largely overlooked but significant challenge
to a movement in American medicine to treat firearms as a matter of
public health.

The language, pushed by the National Rifle Association
in the final weeks of the 2010 debate over health care and discovered
only in recent days by some lawmakers and medical groups, is drawing
criticism in the wake of this month’s schoolhouse massacre of
20 children and six educators in Newtown, Conn. Some public health
advocates, worried that the measure will hinder research and medical
care, are calling on the White House to amend the language as it
prepares to launch a gun-control initiative in January.

+++++++++++++++
"hinder research and medical
care"? I should damn well hope so! That kind of "research" has no place in a free society.

Tried to sign up - kept getting messages that the "capcha" was copied wrong. Sent them an email about that.

I certainly hope this isn't a stealth site to get patriots to "register" on a best shot first list...but taking our country back is a risk, and risks need to be taken. Besides, I'm on so many lists by now that one more won't make any difference.

Now it's Mr. Muelller's personal assistant trying to get me to accept all that lonely African money:

F.B.I Headquarters Washington DC.

601 4Th Street, N.W Washington DC.

20533, USA

Dear Sir/Mir,

I am Ronald T. Hosko,the personal secretary to the FBI Director;
Roberts. Mueller III. After proper investigations, we discovered that
your impending payment that have been withheld by imposters for a very
long period of time, claiming to be who they are not, But with the Help
of FBI we have been able to trace them.

Investigations revealed that you have spent a lot of your personal
earned money just to conclude the successful transfer of your funds to
your nominated bank account by obtaining transfer documents as requested
by the impostors, costing you a lot of money but to no avail.

The FBI had to send some financial crime investigators from our head
quarters in Washington DC to London, Western Part of the World (Africa)
in other to carry out proper investigation, after receiving series of
other reports similar to yours as you are not the only person awaiting
the legal transfer of funds from Africa.

With the help of some of the best Internet investigators attached to
the FBI, we traced your information from the Internet as one of the
beneficiaries of this Inheritance Funds. I am pleased to inform you that
a meeting was held as regards the best way to carry out with the
compensation exercise for transparency and most especially to avoid
re-occurrence of the delay in transferring your funds and the high cost
of procuring transfer documents and came to a final conclusion as all
head of organizations involved was duly represented. Your Funds worth
$9.5,00,000.00 USD (Nine Million Five Hundred Thousand United states
Dollars) Only will be release to you in my Supervision.

Reconfirm your delivery information as stated below.

DELIVERY INFORMATION:

FULL NAME:

DELIVERY ADDRESS:

OCCUPATION:

AGE:

CELLPHONE NUMBER:

Note: You are to forward any email received from those Scammer to my
email address so we can be able to trace them and eradicate them from
cheating innocent people.

Mr. Ronald T. Hosko.

For: Mr. Robert S. Mueller III

FBI DIRECTOR

Advertencia / Confidentiality Notice

PAVIMENTOS COLOMBIA S.A.S., Informa:

Este envio es confidencial y esta destinado unicamente a la persona a la
que ha sido enviado. Puede contener informacion privada y confidencial.
Si usted no es el destinatario al que ha sido remitida, no puede
copiarla, distribuirla ni emprender con ella ningun tipo de accion.
Si cree que lo ha recibido por error, por favor, notifiquelo al remitente.
This transmission is confidential and intended solely for the person to whom it is addressed.
It may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not
the intended recipient, you should not copy, distribute or take any
action in reliance on it.
If you believe that you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

"***
UNFORTUNATELY DUE TO THE MARXIST PIECE OF SHIT MAKE BELIEVE MESSIAH IN
CHARGE AS WELL AS HIS MEDIA USEFUL IDIOT MINION DICKHEADS, THE ENTIRE
SOCIETY OF LIBERTY LOVING AMERICANS ARE BEING PUNISHED FOR THE ACTIONS
OF A FUCKING LUNATIC. INSTEAD OF BLAMING A CULTURE OF PSYCHOPATHS AND
CRIMINALS FOR VIOLENCE, THEY BLAME THIS 10" x 3" x 1" PIECE OF PLASTIC
AND METAL ENGINEERING GENIUS FOR THE SLAUGHTER OF TWENTY INNOCENT
CHILDREN AND SIX TEACHERS.

OUR COUNTRY IS CURRENTLY UNDER ATTACK
BY THE DEMENTED, TWISTED, AND DISTURBED BRAINWASHED CHILDREN OF THE HARD
CORE OLD SCHOOL SOVIET BLOCK COMMUNISTS WHO HAVE INFILTRATED OUR
COUNTRY AT EVERY FACET OF SOCIETY. IF YOU ARE HERE LOOKING TO PURCHASE A
MAGAZINE THAT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE, THEN YOU OBVIOUSLY UNDERSTAND THE
WORDS ABOVE. AND WHEN THEY PASS UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAWS, OR IMPLEMENT
UNCONSTITUTIONAL REGULATIONS, I HOPE THAT YOU REMEMBER YOUR GOD GIVEN
FREEDOMS, AND REFUSE TO COMPLY WITH THIS REGIMES INTENTIONAL DESTRUCTION
OF OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY, AND DIE IN A PILE OF SMOKING BRASS." MOLON
LABE !

The PMAG is a 30-round 5.56x45 NATO (.223 Remington)
AR15/M16 compatible magazine. It features an advanced impact resistant
polymer construction, a pop-off Impact/Dust Cover for storage, and an
easy to disassemble design with a flared floor plate for positive
magazine extraction from pouches. The PMAG 30 utilizes a resilient
stainless steel spring for corrosion resistance and a anti-tilt,
self-lubricating follower for increased reliability.

This current revision has been updated with a new body ribbing design
which allows for better compatibility with aftermarket mag couplers, a
new follower which provides even smoother loading with military stripper
clips, and the Impact/Dust Cover can now be snapped onto the floor
plate when not in use to prevent possible loss.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end
the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal
workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is
Vice President Joe Biden.
According to disclosure forms, Biden made a cool $225,521 last year. After the pay increase, he’ll now make $231,900 per year.
Members
of Congress, from the House and Senate, also will receive a little
bump, as their annual salary will go from $174,000 to 174,900.
Leadership in Congress, including the speaker of the House, will
likewise get an increase.
Here’s the list of new wages, as attached to President Obama’s executive order: (Read More)

Introduction:
After a lengthy, self-imposed informational black-out, my high-level
DHS contact known as “Rosebud” emerged with new, non-public information
about plans being discussed and
prepared for implementation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
in the near future. It is important to note that this black-out was
directly related to the aggressive federal initiative of identifying and
prosecuting “leakers,” at least those leaks and leakers not sanctioned by the executive office—the latter of which there are many.

A taste:

DH: New federal gun laws?RB: Yes. Count on the criminalization to possess just about
every gun you can think of. Not only restrictions, but actual
criminalization of possessing a banned firearm. I heard this directly
from the highest of my sources. Plans were made in the ‘90s but were
withheld. Now, it’s a new day, a new time, and they are riding the wave
of emotion from Sandy Hook, which, by the way as tragic as it was, well,
it stinks to high heaven. I mean there are many things wrong there, and
first reports are fast disappearing. The narrative is being changed.
Look, there is something wrong with Sandy Hook, but if you write it,
you’ll be called a kook or worse.DH: SureRB: But Sandy Hook, there’s something very wrong there. But I
am hearing that won’t be the final straw. There will be another if they
think it’s necessary.DH: Another shooting?RB: Yes.DH: That would mean they are at least complicit.RB: Well, that’s one way of looking at it.DH: Are they? Were they?RB: Do your own research. Nothing I say, short of bringing you
photographs and documents will convince anyone, and even then, it’s
like [DELETED] in the wind.DH: So…RB: So what I’m telling you is that DHS, the TSA and certain,
but not all, law enforcement agencies are going to be elbow deep in riot
control in response to an economic incident. At the same time or close
to it, gun confiscation will start. It will start on a voluntary basis
using federal registration forms, then an amnesty, then the kicking-in
of doors start.

Mike Hendricks is giving up his Saturday January 5th to give a free
Concealed Carry Class brought to you from Wisconsin Carry Inc!! It will
be at my home 2204 Bond Place Janesville Wisconsin at 10:00 am please
find time in your schedule to be here in support of The 2nd Amendment
and Wisconsin Carry Inc and Wisconsin III%! I am trying to set up a shoot
after, at the southern compound as well!!! Any questions please call me, Sean Anderson,
at 608-290-2698!

P.S, This class is for anyone!
Thank you Mike for volunteering your time!!

My son treated his sister, my wife, and me to go see "The Hobbit" Christmas Day. As usual, I was carrying my S&W Model 19, concealed. The theater here in Beloit is not posted "no weapons", or we wouldn't have been there.

Update: WOAI now reports it was an off-duty sergeant who fired a total of four shots, wounding the shooter. An Initial report by 1200 WOAI news said that an off-duty sheriff’s deputy shot the suspect one time.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office says the off-duty
sergeant, who was working security, heard the gunshots and came running.
She saw the gunman coming out of the men’s restroom. The Sheriff’s
Office says the gunman did not shoot at her, but his gun was drawn so
she opened fire.
That off-duty sergeant, identified as Lisa Castellano, fired four
times, wounding the gunman. Only one other person was wounded, a
49-year-old man inside the theater, who was hit by one of the gunman’s
shots. Both are expected to recover.
Investigators say about 30 rounds were fired. It’s unclear why the
break-up with his girlfriend caused the man to go after his co-workers.
Investigators haven’t ruled out a love-triangle involving someone else
at the restaurant.

–
With one shot, an off-duty sergeant took down a gunman who attempted
to opened fire at a crowded movie theater lobby during a late night
showing of “The Hobbit” in San Antonio, 1200 WOAI news reports.

Police say a gunman, identified as Jesus Manuel Garcia,
chased patrons from the nearby China Garden Restaurant into the lobby
of the Santikos Mayan 14 movie theater at around 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Garcia, an employee of the restaurant, reportedly walked in the
establishment looking for a woman.

++++++++++++++++
The guy used a Glock 23. Must have changed magazines a couple times.

Effectivenness of 1994-2004 Assault Weapons Ban

Now, let's review history after a little makeover in the Ministry of Truth:

Following are studies that have been conducted on the 1994-2004 Assault Weapons Ban:

In an Urban Institute study for the Department of Justice(pdf),
Jeffrey Roth and Christopher Koper find that the 1994 Assault Weapons
Ban was responsible for a 6.7 percent decrease in total gun murders,
holding all other factors equal. They write: “Assault weapons are
disproportionately involved in murders with multiple victims, multiple
wounds per victim, and police officers as victims.”

In a University of Pennsylvania study
(pdf), Christopher Koper reports that the use of assault weapons in
crime declined by more than two-thirds by about nine years after 1994
Assault Weapons Ban took effect.

Once you define something to NOT be an "assault weapon", of course the use of that evil thing drops. Only problem is, the number of shootings with NON-"assault" weapons goes up to make up the difference - or worse.

In a Washington Post story,
reporters David Fallis and James Grimaldi write that the percentage of
firearms seized by police in Virginia with high-capacity magazines
dropped significantly during the Assault Weapons Ban. That figure has
doubled since the ban expired.

Original source: In Virginia, high-yield clip seizures rise. By David S. Fallis and James V. Grimaldi, Washington Post.

In a letter to the editor in the American Journal of Public Health
(pdf), Douglas Weil and Rebecca Knox explain that when Maryland imposed
a more stringent ban on assault pistols and high-capacity magazines in
1994, it led to a 55 percent drop in assault pistols recovered by the
Baltimore Police Department.

It's always good to get data from reliable sources. The VPC in particular will never fail to provide the requisite numbers on demand - just give them the requirements, and their crack team of professional statisticians will roll out whatever results prove the point they want proven.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Today is not a day to discuss gun control.Six months haven’t passed since
the horrific shootings in Aurora, the Sikh temple, the Milwaukee spa,
the Oregon Mall or the Connecticut school. Opponents of gun control say
we can’t make rational decisions about gun laws in the emotional wake of
each national shooting tragedy like Columbine, Virginia Tech or Tucson.
So we must not even think about gun control until June 14th, 2013.

Our founding fathers approved the 2nd amendment and
believed that Americans should be armed. Thomas Jefferson wrote, ”No
free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” The weapon of our
founding fathers was the musket, difficult to reload, inaccurate and it
took a man’s weight in lead musket balls to kill him. Opponents of gun
control claim that our founding fathers had the foresight to imagine the
killing power of semi automatic weapons.

What can we do today to prevent more shootings from
happening so that we can discuss gun control?

Opponents of gun control
claim that if the theater-goers in Aurora were armed, the carnage would
have been minimal. While it did nothing to stop the Sikh temple and
beauty salon shootings, Wisconsin recently allowed concealed carry.

So I present this modest proposal: Require all school
children and teachers to be armed. Imagine if the kindergartners in
Connecticut had been armed. No insane individual would think of
attacking them.

Sure schools might experience a few gun battles in
the halls or the occasional playground gunfight but any children who
survive armed schools would have an understanding of gun violence and
(unlike adults) the good judgement and common sense to enact gun control
as soon as they could vote. But today is not a good day to discuss gun
control.

John Pickart

Beloit

My response - we'll see if it gets printed:

Mr. Pickart of Beloit writes that we must arm all teachers and children
in our schools to prevent further tragedies like Sandy Hook.

He states that we can't make rational decisions while in the heat of
passion. I agree. Reading his letter, I am reminded of how so many
liberals are so quick to jump on a tragedy involving guns to try and
urge yet more useless "gun control" laws.

He points out that our Founders used muskets. This is true, but they
also used rifles - the "assault weapon" of the day - to fight for
freedom from oppression. Private parties also mustered their own
artillery companies to fight in the Revolution.

He mentions the shooting in Aurora, Colorado as a failure of concealed
carry, but fails to mention that the shooter likely chose the theater
because of the prominent "NO WEAPONS" signs posted there.

Fire extinguishers do nothing to stop fires unless they are present
where the fire is, and if people are trained and willing to use them.
Guns are exactly the same thing - safety equipment that is only
effective if available for people willing to learn to use them properly.

The fact that 49 states have some sort of concealed carry available, and
there have been no incidents of "gun battles in the halls" should put to
rest the thought that teachers and school staff, properly trained and
willing to take on the responsibility of being armed and prepared will
cause mayhem. On the contrary, they might end the attack before the
shooter runs out of ammunition - as happened when Nick Meli pulled his
concealed gun in the Clackamas Town Center mall in Oregon and stopped
the shooter without firing a shot earlier this month.

Hyperbole is fine in satire. School shootings and self-protection are
not suitable subjects for satire.

Chuck Kuecker

Note: Mr. Barth of the BDN responded to my last letter to him - perhaps he will print it in all it's wordy glory...

IN THE WAKE of the murderous
rampage in Newtown, I found a longtime friend’s post on Facebook
gripping. He is a retired career military officer, and a wounded Marine
combat veteran of Vietnam — hardly the stuff of bleeding-hearts. He
wrote:

“I’m a gun owner. That said,
mass murder is generally not committed using a ball bat, a car, a bow
and arrow, knife or ax. The hunting rifle, 6-shot revolver, shotgun or
the crossbow are not weapons of choice for someone intent on making an
evermore spectacular exit from life. In the face of repeated massacres
of shoppers and school children, arguments for easy public access to
assault weapons or high capacity handguns are wearing thinner every
day.”

JOE SCARBOROUGH is a former four-term conservative
Republican congressman from Florida — a man who received 100% approval
from the National Rifle Association while in office — who now makes his
living with the “Morning Joe” talkfest on MSNBC. Scarborough chats it up
from a right-center perspective, but doesn’t do long-form commentary.

Until Monday morning, when he called for a
reassessment of America’s paralysis on the issues of guns, mental
illness and our violence-glorifying culture. One of the most powerful
moments in his dissertation came when he quoted Lincoln, from an 1838
speech delivered in Springfield.

Lincoln said: “Shall we expect some transatlantic
military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the
armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of
the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte
for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a
track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point
then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever
reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If
destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a
nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

I, TOO, AM a gun owner, as are my sons. I grew up in
rural America and learned by my father’s hand how to properly handle
firearms. I’m a firm believer in Second Amendment rights for sport, to
protect my family, for peace of mind, for American heritage and
tradition.

But no one needs military-style assault weapons. No
one needs ammo magazines that can hold 30 or more cartridges. No one
needs armor piercing bullets.
Those who defend such firepower will find themselves
increasingly isolated. Consider the stance of Wisconsin state Sen.
Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, one of the leading majority legislators,
who told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel part of the problem is that
Wisconsin’s new concealed carry law banned possession of weapons at
schoolhouses.
“When you single out that schools will not have that
option, that signals to perpetrators and that is an issue. I think we
need to talk about it, advertising where people aren’t able to protect
themselves.”

Seriously? How did that work out for Jared Loughner’s
victims outside a Safeway in Arizona? Or James Holmes’ victims at a
movie theater in Colorado? Or Radcliffe Haughton’s victims at the Azana
Spa in Brookfield?

Read the whole thing at the link.

My response:

12/19/2012

Dear Mr. Barth,

In the wake of last week's atrocity in Newtown, CT. comes
the predictable liberal dance in the blood of innocents, the ritual blaming of
the inanimate objects, and the instant demands that we do SOMETHING to prevent
a similar tragedy from ever happening again.

The liberals never waste a good crisis. They instantly begin
beating the drums for their pet programs designed, in their minds, to
"fix" the problem. Unfortunately, they never take the time to let the
emotions settle down before proposing their solutions.

A sober look at mass murders will show that the overwhelming
majority - according to a recent
article by National Review Online, only one mass killing since 1950
occurred in an area where the public was not prohibited from carrying a defensive
weapon.

"(John) Lott offers a final damning statistic: “With
just one single exception, the attack on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in
Tucson in 2011, every public shooting since at least 1950 in the U.S. in which
more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not
allowed to carry guns.”"

The shooter in Aurora, Colorado had his choice of several theaters closer to his home than the one he chose - one that prominently posted
its' "no weapons" policy. Setting up designated weapons-free zones
simply ensures that when an individual bent on mayhem wants to act out, he will
easily find a suitable venue.

I recently heard the police spokesman for Janesville state
that Janesville schools were "safe" because the police there practice
for such occurrences as a school shooting. This is good, for them to be
prepared. The fact remains that if someone DOES get into a school with murder
on his mind, he will have free run of a weapons-free zone until someone can
call those trained officers, and they can get to the school. During the
response time, how many lives will be lost that possibly could have been saved by
one teacher, maintenance person, or school official with a defensive weapon?

Arguments against large-capacity magazines miss the mark. A
maniac with ten 10-round magazines can cause as much mayhem as one with a
100-round magazine. In the case of the Aurora shooting, the presence of a
100-round magazine probably helped hold down the body count, as it jammed,
preventing further use of that rifle. Ten 10-round magazines are also easier to
conceal than one big magazine.

"Assault rifles" are a manufactured threat. A
"true" assault rifle is a fully-automatic or select-fire weapon that
can only be owned by a person with the proper BATFE paperwork and the $200 tax
paid to the Treasury. No rifle sold at any Wal-mart was ever an
"assault" rifle, no matter how "scary" it looks. Any
bolt-action deer rifle has much more powerful cartridges.

I don't quite understand what your point was with the
Lincoln quote. I never have heard anything about him advocating limits on the
public's access to or possession of weapons, up to and including warships.
Indeed, many of the divisions in the Union Army were raised and supplied by
private citizens who pulled together their own people and arms.

To quote Oliver Wendell Holmes that one cannot yell
"fire!" in a crowded theater misses the point entirely. One is
completely free to cause panic in a public place, and no law will ever prevent
someone bent on doing so from his desire. The quote is meant to imply that one
cannot expect the First Amendment to shield him from the consequences of such
an action. The similar application to the Second Amendment is that yes, you are
allowed to keep and bear - carry - "arms" in public - and that you
must be prepared to suffer the consequences of their misuse. No law can ever
prevent misuse of inanimate objects or substances - if laws alone worked, there
is no drug problem today in America.

I am disturbed by the number of otherwise intelligent
persons who fall for the left-liberal propaganda that the Second Amendment is
somehow coupled to "hunting" and "sport shooting". The
Second Amendment says noting about either - it is there to ensure that
Americans will never be subject to the kind of totalitarian government that too
many countries on Earth have suffered under. To buy into the argument that gun
ownership and availability of "military style" weapons is somehow
outdated and a relic of less sophisticated times is what is truly absurd.

The true discussions must first be about mental illness and
how to protect the public from persons who may be suffering from disorders that
may cause violent outbursts, and second, how to eliminate the risks to our
schools posed by their "weapons free" designation.

To argue for more
"gun control" when it has been proven the world over that "gun
control" is worse than useless, is truly intolerable. Remember that every
case of genocide in more than the last 100 years was preceded by disarmament of
the public - and THAT is why we need to have access to those evil
"assault" rifles. To assume it could never happen here is unthinkable
- just as unthinkable the Newtown shooting were.

We are now selling guns at GunUp.com.
This is in direct response to a number of notable gun stores suspending
the sale of firearms. While the shooting in Connecticut was a horrific,
evil act by a mentally ill person, we do not believe that retailers
should be abandoning gun owners in this uncertain time.

We have
pushed up our timeline for gun sales dramatically and will be launching
features regularly over the next couple of weeks. Bear with us during
this time as we update our site, we felt it absolutely essential to
immediately support our customers and gun owners in light of current
events.

We have a limited supply of AR and AK style rifles
in stock. Due to the recent political blow-back from the shooting, these
types of firearms are completely out of stock from all the national
distributors. We are doing everything in our power to get these products
for our customers.

+++++++++++++++

Direct response to places like Cheaper Than Dirt stopping sales in reaction to what happened in Connecticut.

Respect for the dead is one thing - stupidly knuckling under to pressure from hysterical idiots is another.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

When I wrote yesterday
about the liberals coming out against guns, I had no idea just how some
people would react. What once would have been unthinkable to blast out
into public seems to be becoming more normal via things like Twitter
and Facebook. Below are a selection of Tweets that are clearly
anti-Second Amendment and even calls for the murder of the National
Rifle Association President David Keene, along with NRA members.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Lots of evidence at the link. Read it yourself - much of it is too sick for me to repeat.

Politicians
across the country are vowing to do more to prevent school shooting
tragedies like the one that unfolded Friday in Newtown, Conn. But over
the last few years, the Obama administration and Congress allowed
funding for several school safety initiatives to lapse.

Beneath
the expressions of grief, sorrow and disbelief over the Connecticut
school massacre lies an uneasy truth in Washington: over the last few
years the Obama administration and Congress quietly let federal funding
for several key school security programs lapse in the name of budget
savings.

In a major victory for gun rights advocates, a federal appeals court on
Tuesday struck down a ban on carrying concealed weapons in Illinois —
the only remaining state where carrying concealed weapons is entirely
illegal — and gave lawmakers 180 days to write a law that legalizes it.

In overturning a lower court decision, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals said the ban was unconstitutional and suggested a law legalizing
concealed carry is long overdue in a state where gun advocates had
vowed to challenge the ban on every front.

"There is no suggestion that some unique characteristic of criminal
activity in Illinois justifies the state's taking a different approach
from the other 49 states," Judge Richard Posner, who wrote the court's
majority opinion. "If the Illinois approach were demonstrably superior,
one would expect at least one or two other states to have emulated it."
++++++++++++
The usual suspects (Chicago Demonrats) will fight this every inch, and try to meet the court's order in the most restrictive way possible - but perhaps this time next year I can celebrate not having had to leave my gun home when I go to work for six months!

Assuming there's reciprocity, of course. Open carry would be nice, but let's stay in reality - we are talking Ill-Annoys, here.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

I shouldn't be surprised. Ever since the federal government's illegal Department of Energy and CONgress declared war on Thomas Edison's seminal invention, I knew this was coming.

It still caught me by surprise.

Went to the Ace this morning to pick up replacement floodlight bulbs for the garage motion lights. The last time I did this was about a month ago - bought a 2-pack of GE halogen flood bulbs with a "one year" life - not a guarantee, legally, of course. The pair cost about $12, if I recall right.

The first bulb lasted about two days and went "phhht". The second one lasted over a month.

SO, not going to buy THOSE again = but all the Ace had on the main shelf was those - at $26 / pair now. Looked at the box - made in Mexico - at least the crap GE sells comes from this continent.

The FBI records the emails of nearly all US citizens, including
members of congress, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In
an interview with RT, he warned that the government can use this
information against anyone.
++++++++++++
More and video at the link.

It's a patent that sounds like a plot description for a science-fiction movie or the result of Apple's Siri and Google's AdSense mating. With it, Verizon could program its set-top boxes to survey a room to determine relevant ads to display either on your television or mobile phone. Sound a bit scary? It kind of is.

Verizon's
technology can work a variety of ways. For starters, it can listen in on
conversations - whether it be with someone else in the room or on the
phone - and pick out keywords that would aide it in its duties. In
reality, it's simple stuff in this day and age, but that doesn't make it
any less off-putting. Imagine arguing with your significant other and
then seeing marriage counseling ads on the TV - or better, cuddling and then seeing ads for contraceptives!

I used to work for Motorola, back when the very first cellular phones were being tested. It was common knowledge that the new design could be remotely turned on and conversations listened to without the user's knowledge even then.

Big Brother has been hiding in our pockets for years, and we never suspected, most of us.

There is some misinformation at the article - perhaps I mean "disinformation":

The legality of all this is unknown, not to say in dispute. It is legal
to create your own firearms, but not to distribute them — and in the
case of printed guns there's a bit of both going on. The ATF is looking
at the subject, but for now it's all something of a grey area.

There is no doubt that this is totally legal - the "distribution" is of information, which is protected under the First Amendment - pesky thing that it is - and the final result is only "illegal" to sell or "transfer" according to the BATFE under the yet-to-be declared un-Constitutional NFA and GCA laws.

Perhaps someone can come up with a method of embedding metal bracing in the printed parts...

Saturday, December 1, 2012

The Bureau of Indian Affairs - will someone tell me why this agency still exists? - is "preparing information for an Environmental Impact Statement".

According to a release from the BIA, the areas of
analysis in the EIS include, “land resources, water resources, air
quality, noise, biological resources, cultural resources, resource use
patterns, traffic and transportation, public health and environmental
hazards, public services and utilities, socioeconomics, environmental
justice and visual resources/aesthetics.”

What the blue blazes does "socioeconomics, environmental
justice and visual resources/aesthetics” have to do with whether or not a casino gets built? WTF is "environmental
justice" anyway? What are "cultural resources"? Are they mined, or grown? "Biological resources"? Beyond air and water?

WTF?!?!?

The bottom line for Beloit:

The proposed 33-acre casino project would be located just off of
Interstate 90/39 and would include a 300-room hotel. The project is
expected to cost about $150 million to build, and could create up to
2,000 jobs, Ho-Chunk officials previously told the Beloit Daily News.
Ho-Chunk officials had said in previous interviews the casino plan
includes a 70,000-square-foot casino with 2,000 slots and 50 gaming
tables.

Tell Washington to go scratch. If Beloit and the Ho-Chunk Nation agree, that should be all that matters past the opinions of people owning land adjacent to the proposed location. 200 jobs in this area is what is important - not some imaginary "environmental" issue.